Sandor Woden
Sandor Woden (8 BBY—15 ABY) was a traitor to the Galactic Empire, and a benefactor of the New Republic, though admittedly his contributions were small. Having experienced Imperial corruption firsthand, during his meteoric rise to the rank of Sergeant Major in the Imperial Army in just six months, Sandor quickly became disillusioned with the elaborate system of favors that exists in the military bureaucracy, and tried, with little success, to find a way out of his service contract. While this put him at odds with some of his superiors, none of them truly expected him to become involved in the Moff Sekirol Crisis, and if not for the deal secured by Field Marshal Valtoor to put an end to a series of bloody confrontations, it's likely that Sandor would simply have been executed. Instead, he fled the Empire entirely, in the wake of Ai'kani Za'netra's escape from the OS Guardian. After his defection, Sandor was involved in several battles alongside NR Marines, and took two additional wounds in the process. He recieved no medals from these events, however, likely due to the rather dubious means by which he escaped his second service contract. Fiercely independent, and dedicated to seeing an end to the fighting without the destruction of either side in the war, Sandor had come to believe that the politics no longer really matter, and that no matter who wins, the people caught in the middle will suffer a terrible price. He was not so naive as to think that he can possibly bring about this change, however, and had instead dedicated his actions to improving the quality of life for those around him, especially the people he truly cared about, until a change in the greater political situation could take place. Sandor Woden was captured on Ord Mantell by bounty hunter Jorj Brinaj and smuggled out of the New Republic, ending up as a captive aboard the HIMS Inquisitor. After a thorough interrogation, as well as some less than pleasant means utilized to coerce him into divulging what little he knew of the New Republic beyond open-source material, he was charged with treason. Rather than fighting the inevitable, Sandor pled guilty to all crimes associated with his name, and was ordered shot during Kelona, fifteen years after the Battle of Yavin. He was just barely twenty four years of age. Biography Early Life (8 BBY – 12 ABY) Sandor speaks very little of his early life, and in turn thinks of it about as often. Having cut himself off from his family, and possibly put them at risk from his treason against the state, perhaps it is simply easier for him to try not to dwell on the people he has left behind. Moreover, seeing as how his family had been staunch supporters of the Empire, he doesn't like to think about how real the possibility is that the feeling goes both ways. Imperial Career (13 ABY – 14 ABY) At the age of twenty-one, Sandor enlisted in the Imperial Army, and quickly made his way out of the raw infantry that would be sent around the Galaxy to die in a policy of mass assaults, even against fortified or asymmetrical objectives. This would be just about the only thing he managed to accomplish in his career based on actual skill, hitting 92 percent of the targets in his weapons qualification, immediately marking him for advanced individual training as a sniper. The sniper course, however, was no so easy, and like many of his peers, Sandor had considerable difficulty on the portions of the course pertaining to stalking, flanking, and otherwise moving great distances unseen. With standards in the Imperial Army still fairly lax, however, he passed the course even in spite of this setback. Battle of Yaartsek Sandor's first experience with combat would come shortly thereafter, and leave a profound scar on his mind for over a year. The Battle of Yaartsek, a large-scale assault against fortified insurgent positions on the jungle world of the same name, was set to take place, and along with the rest of his squad, Sandor was commited into the fray without much in the way of knowledge as to what they would be facing. Like most of the soldiers involved, this would be his first experience in jungle warfare. After inserting only a kilometer away from the Imperial Garrison, which had been captured some time beforehand, most of the snipers and other long-riflemen were seperated from their platoons, and sent forward as the eyes and the ears for the advancing force. Individuals tend to attract much less notice than entire formations of Imperial soldiers advancing through rough terrain, however, and so Sandor is still within cover as the first booby-traps are set off. Well-placed grenades make quick work of the first wave of Imperial soldiers, as does the barrage of blaster fire that quickly follows. Taking aim, he manages to take out a soldier who lingers in a discussion with another for too long, leading Sandor to believe that the other is in fact an officer. In his inexperience, however, he fails to realize that the officer was the critical target, and firing several more times, he fails to hit the man before a hail of blasterfire forces him to find a new position. The fighting is surprisingly short, however, and a nuclear device is detonated inside the garrison, killing most of the Imperial force. Sandor, however, recieves no physical harm from the blast, but would have died within hours from the radiation if not for prompt medical treatment. Sekirol Crisis Being a survivor leaves Sandor guilty, however, especially as he is promoted to Private First Class immediately afterward. Worse, saving Danik Kreldin's life on Naom Char, shortly thereafter, marks him for a score of promotions, medals, and get out of execution free cards. It takes Sandor months to realize that this is the cause of his good fortune, however, and even then vanity leaves him wondering if it might not have had something to do with his skills on the battlefield. After attempting to force Danik to change the pre-Blitz Imperial strategy at gunpoint, however, and recieving only three days detention, it becomes clear to the young soldier that all is not as it seems on the surface, and the first thoughts of how he might end his service contract early enter his head. To test his theory regarding Imperial corruption, Sandor soon asks Danik if he can be transferred to a less dangerous command. Two days later, Sandor's CO recieves word that then Master Sergeant S. Woden is being transferred to Barida, to serve on Field Marshal Valtoor's staff as an 'expert' on insurgent tactics. While the title is essentially a sham, Valtoor himself is not made aware of this, and with the drastic shortage of specialist officers as Moff Sekirol, Chiarn, Barida, and several other planets declare independence from the Empire, a member of Valtoor's staff reccomends that Sandor be promoted to Major, and placed in charge of a militia batallion being formed as a contingency plan, should conventional fighting fail. What nobody expected, however, was how fast Task Force Nebula's response would be, and with less than a company combat-ready at the time of the invasion, Sandor requests that his men don civilian clothing and conduct an disruption operations against the Imperial invasion force, during and after Valtoor's withdrawal. Aristocratic and chivalrous in his intentions, and a strategic and tactical genius to the point of vanity, the Field Marshal decides against stooping to such low tactics, and the 8th Volunteer Defense Batallion is subsequently disbanded. Defection, and subsequent desertion After Valtoor's eventual surrender, Sandor is inducted back into the Imperial fold, but voluntarily undergoes therapy and becomes a mole inside of the Imperial Army for Imperial Intelligence. Already, however, Sandor's peers have learned that associating with Sandor is not a good career move, and in consequence, very little comes of this. However, it does give Sandor access to certain areas he had been barred from in the past, and at his own risk, under supposed orders from a Major Honj Edo of Imperial Special Operations Command, begins an interrogation of Ai'kani that quickly turns into a correspondence, and ultimately, an infatuation. Believing her dead in the destruction of OS Guardian, only learning of her transfer there after the fact, Sandor requests for leave, and makes his way to Coruscant to inform her comrades of their loss, and if neccesary, accept punishment in the absence of those responsible for her original capture. Instead, he finds the Jedi very much alive, and without having to worry so much about Imperial security cameras, she soon convinces Sandor of a fact that he'd already known, that the Imperial Military is not a good place for him to be, and that he may well have been on the wrong side of the war. Days go by, and as the tapes of Sandor's exchanges with Ai'kani are reviewed, and the original duration of his leave expires, a bounty of thirty thousand credits is placed on Sandor's head, for the crime of treason. Not wanting to simply fend for himself, and become a burden to Ai'kani, he strikes a deal with fellow traitor David Stone, and surrenders alongside him to the New Republic. Sorely pressed for soldiers, and after a thorough examination of Sandor's intentions, he is given a gun and sent directly into the Marines, rather than recieving training as to the differences between the Imperial and Republican military's operational procedures. In consequence, Sandor's performance is not especially high, and in an ironic twist, he is wounded at Cochran to Tanis Cadell, a former squadmate and fellow survivor of the daring raid against the NRSD Crusader during the Second Battle of Etti IV. Shortly thereafter, he is wounded in a raid on the former Imperial Palace on Coruscant, but recieves only minor injuries from this, and goes on to rescue several wounded men during the battle, nearly killing legendary stormtrooper Wescal Cantrell in the process. Poisoned by the vanity that Danik had gradually instilled into him, Sandor lies about his capture shortly after the raid by Imperial forces, and claims that he simply had gone off for a bit of unannounced leave. As he'd intended, Sandor recieved a dishonorable discharge from the Marines afterward, before compelling evidence that the capture had been real and his subsequent rescue had only taken place due to the involvement of several Jedi could be reviewed. The current status of Sandor Woden(15 ABY) The whereabouts of what's left of Sandor are unknown, as they were whisked away by the ISB at the end of the brief hearing in which he pled guilty to his crimes, and was subsequently shot once in the head. It could well be that his genetic material is being utilized as a sniper template for cloning facilities, provided the 'kinks' that led to his defection can be worked out. Or, perhaps he is simply being incinerated behind closed doors, or some other such fate. Only those with access to the ISB's database can really say for sure. Woden, Sandor Woden, Sandor Woden, Sandor Woden, Sandor